Jan 20, 2011

Charlott Schönwetter of Afrika Wissen Schaft

Another nominee for the Female Blogger of the Year Awards is Charlott Schönwetter, formerly known as Ebert ( ;) ). As a student of both African Studies and Sociology, she has plenty of knowledge at hand to share on her blogAfrika Wissen Schaft. Follow the jump to find out why Charlott really took up blogging, why she posts in German instead of in English, and why she hasn't mustered up the courage to post images yet.

What's your name, how old are you, and what do you do for a living (or all day, for that matter)?

My name is Charlott and I'm 23. I spend most of my time studying, both for my MA in African Studies, but also for my BA in Sociology at the Open University. Besides, I work for a social network. (One can't live off studying alone.)

How long have you been blogging? How did you get around to blogging?

I've only really started at the beginning of April 2010. Before that, I undertook a couple of short-lived attempts. And how I got around to it? That's difficult to say.... I wanted a blog because I like to write and like that platform as a way of making your texts available to a wider public. And if you want me to be super-honest, another reason was that many of my friends suddenly took up blogging (most of them about political issues), I wanted to take part.

What's your blog called and why?

My blog is called "Afrika Wissen Schaft" [something like "Afrika Know Ledge"]. I intended to bring out what's in the title: Knowledge about Africa. I chose that particular spelling to allow for multiple ways of reading. As in, for example, "Africa creates knowledge". Possibly not the most ideal name ever created. But at least pretty memorable.

What are you blogging about? Why?

In general, I blog about my studies. Sometimes I add event recommendations, blog or media reviews, or articles on the issue of racism. I surf around the net a lot and came across multiple awesome American blogs providing the world with humanistic content. In Germany, we don't have as many of those. So on my blog I'd like to share knowledge that otherwise would only circulate in small university rooms. To me it's important that my blog is German, too, because most of my sources, the books we read and the stuff that's available online is in English.

Who's your target audience?

- Lay readers that are interested in a different approach on Africa (and sometimes Asia, too)
- Students looking for input
- Future students that are interested in what topics my major covers

And when I take a closer look at my blog statistics, I can see that I apparently, I am also of interest to one very particular group: People who are desperately looking for more information on Homi Bhabha, postcolonial theorist.

Who designed your blog? How much was that? In case you designed your own layout: Where did you learn how to?

I just chose a readily available template at Wordpress. Nothing especially made. The only thing on my blog I designed myself is the header. In a distant future, I'd like to have a fantastic, creative, unique blog... Well, one can dream.

Which software and which host do you use? Can you recommend them?

I'm with Wordpress and quite happy with it, especially because I have no time for anything more complicated. There, it's possible to get quick, good results.

What role play photos, MP3-files or video clips on your blog? If you use them, would you mind showing us one?

So far, unfortunately, my posts are mostly words. I haven't really dared to go into any of the other media. Privately, I carry my beloved camera around all the time, but whenever I think about adding images to a post, I hear one of my professors: "Who is making use of images should be absolutely sure about what meaning they are meant to transport and to what extent they are crucial for the scientific issue discussed." I'd like to start adding more images, though.

How many readers do you have? How many would you like to have? Does their number matter to you at all?

I can't say much about reader numbers, because I can only see in my statistics how many page views I get. (So in theory, one visitor could go wild and click on all pages, like, 90 times.) I am not all that interested in numbers, either. My blog is probably not exactly made for everyday reading. It makes me happy to see that through searches on different topics I get around 20 to 30 visits a day. This means at least one of my goals has been reached: Providing information. Whether people like what they see, they only rarely tell, though.

Can you learn how to blog? Do you need to know a lot about computers? Do you have any advice for beginners?

I think that thanks to different blog hosts, setting up a nice blog has become fairly easy, you don't need to know too much about computers. More difficult, for sure, is the content part. In my opinion, one should know from the start what the blog's topic will be. Also, blogging really is a lot of work if you'd like to post more than just once every couple of months. To a certain degree, I guess, you can learn how to blog for sure (like anything, really). For example by looking at other blogs, figure out what you like about them and so forth. Other people's comments might also help. You might not become the next genius blogger by that (I myself am admiring so many bloggers for their cool layouts and writing styles!), but you'll become a solid one for sure.

Have you made negative experiences with blogging, too? What kind?

Luckily, I have been spared on that front. Let's hope I will be in the future, too.

And have you ever made money through your blog? If yes, how so?

No, but that was never my intention.

Do you use twitter, too? Why (not)? What pros and cons do you see when it comes to twitter?

I do have a Twitter accout, but it's dead, really. I was against it for a long time, then succumbed and failed. I'm glad whenever I manage a blog post. Twitter is too stressful.

Which other female bloggers can you recommend? Why?

I love blogs and read plenty of them. I can't name them all, so here are a couple of highlights only:

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